China WMPs rise to record $3.9 tril­lion

Chi­nese house­holds, com­pa­nies and banks held a record 26.3 tril­lion yuan ($3.9 tril­lion) of wealth-man­age­ment prod­ucts as of June 30, un­der­scor­ing risks to an in­creas­ingly lever­aged fi­nan­cial sys­tem from an ex­plo­sion in shadow bank­ing. The prod­ucts’ value rose 11.8 per­cent in the first half from the end of last year, ac­cord­ing to a state­ment on the China Bank­ing Wealth Man­age­ment Reg­is­tra­tion Sys­tem’s web­site. More than 450 banks raised a to­tal of 84 tril­lion yuan by sell­ing 97,636 WMPs in the first six months, ac­cord­ing to the state­ment.